The answer is there is no answer.

This month has been pretty amazing. A day without meditating even for 5 minutes seems incomplete. My creativity level is slowly getting better but still needs some work. I feel like I am opening up more to those around me and life in general. The little things make such a difference.

Today I am grateful for:

- Having Elyse and Renna as friends. I love these girls so much and feel extremely lucky to have them in my life.

- Being able to meditate for 10 minutes this morning. 

- Going to work at a place I love.

- Going to lunch with my husband and his co-workers.

- Rilo being happy to see me. Nothing better than an animal’s unconditional love.

- Continuing self-love

This month’s challenge has been great. I have been meditating everyday with the exception of yesterday due to having family in town this weekend and ended up crashing early. Oops. It has been easier to focus on breathing and calming down my mind. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to finally get a solid 10-15 minutes of meditation down but it’s worth it. My friend Elyse is doing the challenge with me as well and it’s been nice to have a support system. It is especially nice to have someone who understands and appreciates meditation rather than looking at me like I have two heads when I start talking about it. 

As far as setting aside time for creativity, that hasn’t been happening everyday. Although, I have come to realize that creativity isn’t defined by doing certain things. With Graham being out of town for most of this week, I am going to set aside time to do creative activities, work out, meditate and spend time with friends. Hopefully, the 4 days will go by quickly.

On another note, I have decided to dedicate more time reading up on education and seeing what peaks my interest. I still feel scared about going into such an unstable area but it’s something that I value very much. We are so far behind in education compared to other countries and we should make education a higher priority than it is right now. I want to feel comfortable knowing that if we ever have children, they will receive a better education than we had. Not a subpar education that no longer stimulates creativity and critical thinking. Now, the big question is “what part am I going to play?” I’m excited to see what life has in store.

With September quickly approaching, it’s time for a new 30 day challenge. Despite falling behind with this month’s challenge (still in progress), it really helped me figure out what I need to focus on more. Next month will be a challenge to meditate and be creative. Doing those 2 things make me happy and I could always use more of it. For the meditation portion, I will set aside 5-30 minutes per day to mediate. Another 10 minutes to 1 hour will be set aside for creative time. This will be used to practice piano, ukulele, painting, writing, learning photoshop (let’s see if I can talk my husband into this…) and whatever else.

The end goal for this challenge is to be in the present moment more often and get in tune with my intuition. Hopefully, fine tuning that will help guide me to what I am meant to do and things that I feel passionate about. My mind is all over the place and it would be nice to focus on the things that really matter. I also want to build confidence in playing piano and ukulele and being creative in general. I hold myself back because it’s something I don’t automatically succeed at on the first try or just plain old failure. But, I am letting go of that limiting belief and just going for it.

Music Therapy (one of many careers that I have been thinking about) requires skill in playing an instrument and hopefully this will help me build confidence in playing.

Can’t wait to get started!

Thank you Lori from Tiny Buddha for posting this.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/10-ways-i-know-theres-nothing-wrong-with-you-or-me/

1. You’re playing the game of life as best you know how, and trying to get better every day. You can’t possibly do someone else’s best, so there’s no point in stressing about it.
2. You make mistakes like everyone else, which allows you to learn as you go. That means you’re doing what you should be.
3. You’re unique, whether you’re introverted or outgoing, book smart or street smart, creative or technical—the list goes on and on. You’re the world’s only opportunity to know a person just like you. The only hope to share what only you can.
4. There’s no such thing as the way you should be. If you do what you enjoy and don’t harm other people, you’re living a beautiful life.
5. You will never become someone—you are someone right now, whether you influence millions of people or mean the world to just one person. Your impact is powerful, whether you realize it or not.
6. If someone hurts you, you don’t deserve it. No one does. End of conversation.
7. You feel emotions and respond to them. That’s the way this whole humanity things works. If you could stand to improve the way you respond, newsflash: you’re still like everybody else.
8. You have a pulse right now, and it’s your choice what you do with it. There’s no right or wrong answer. (Unless what you want is to maim a puppy or something equally perverse.)
9. You choose what you think is best, or else you wouldn’t choose it. As you get new information and grow stronger and smarter, you’ll make different choices.
10. You are beautiful, inside and out.

Today is Day 18 of the 30 days to Be a Better Me Challenge. Our task is to evaluate yourself in your different roles.

1. List down 3 roles that matter the most to you. You are free to select more than 3 roles if you like.
   • For today’s task, I’ll illustrate with my examples! At the moment, my 3 most important roles are: (a) Blogger (b) Friend (c) Housemate.
2. On a scale of 1-10, rate yourself in these roles, along with the reason why.
   • Blogger: 1/10 -
     • Because I see so much potential for me to be better in what I do. While I’m do some aspect of blogging every day, I’m not spending as much time on it as I’d like. I’ve a lot of new ideas which I want to work on in the coming few months/year, including increasing the reach of TPEB, releasing new ebooks, creating new courses, possibly publishing my first book, speaking at international blogging conventions, and more.
   • Friend: 3/10 -
     • While I make an effort to be there for my friends, there is a lot more I can do here. One, I feel I’ve not been there (as much as I’d like) for my friends back in Singapore as well as the new friends I’ve made in my travels. While we keep in touch via email, chat and sometimes Skype, usually (a) discussions are centered around my activities (b) I’ve only been able to reply when I’m free, which is not very often. Two, there are friends whom I’ve not been in touch with and I wonder how they are doing. They have sent me mails which I’ve yet to revert to unfortunately, due to my travels.
   • Housemate: 3/10 -
     • At the moment (Aug 17), I’m living with a fellow TPEB reader/friend and her boyfriend in London, UK. They’ve graciously housed me in their abode and on top of that, have been taking me out and covering my expenses. I’m very thankful for their hospitality and would like to do more for them.
3. Identify your ideal 10/10 score for each role.
   • Blogger:
     • I would like to reach out to an even greater audience, touch even more lives around the world, create more free articles, and share with everyone. I’d like to continue to be interviewed and featured in international media, which will help me reach out to more people. I would like to get started on new ebooks that add real value to others’ lives (have only released 2 official ones for the past 2.5 years). I’d like to work towards publishing my first book. I’d like to start speaking at renowned blogging conferences, share my best advice on creating a top blog, and meet like-minded people.
   • Friend:
     • I would like to be there for my friends the whole time. I would like to pre-empt situations where they may need me to be there, so they would never have to be in a state of helplessness. I would like to relentlessly support them in their goals, so they will have the inner faith and courage to pursue whatever it is they want to do in life.
   • Housemate:
     • I would like to contribute in a larger way to the household. This can be via maintenance activities like grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and simple household chores. I would also like to treat them in our upcoming meals out.
4. List down your immediate action steps (and dates) to achieve the 10/10 score.
   • Blogger:
     • Write 2 new guest posts for Site X and Site Y – Aug 17-18
     • Brainstorm on ideas to bring the blog/TPEB to the next level – This evening
   • Friend:
     • Reply to all pending emails from friends K, H, S and O – Now (Done)
     • Send out emails to friends whom I’ve not connected with in a while – Now (Done)
   • Housemate:
     • Go grocery shopping and stock up on food supplies at home – Today (Done)
     • Pay for the groceries – Today (Done)
     • Help out in household chores – This weekend (Aug 20-21)
     • Pay for the meals the next time we eat out – This weekend (Aug 20-21)

1. 3 roles that matter most: wife, friend, co-worker

2.

Eek! I’ve fallen behind again and we are going on vacation this weekend where laptops are not allowed. Next week should be fun…

Day 17’s task is to offer advice to someone.

1. Think of someone who is dealing with something you can help with. Example:
   • If you have a friend who wants to lose weight and you’ve successfully achieved your ideal weight.
   • If you run a successful start-up and you know people who want to launch their start-ups.
   • If you are a senior at your workplace and there are juniors who could do with your help.
   • If your friend wants to learn baking and you are good at baking.
   • If your cousin wants to start his/her website and you have knowledge in web development.
   • .. etc.
2. Approach him/her to offer your help.
   • It’s up to you on how you want to do this. An example on how to approach - ”Are you currently working on XX? I’ve experience with this. Let me know if you need any help – I’ll love to help!“.
   • It’s important the person accepts your offer to help first. Do not throw your advice when people do not ask for it. It’s not only rude, but it’s also presumptuous. Some people may be doing perfectly fine and not want your advice, in which case it is not in your place to step in.
3. Offer your advice!
   1. If the person accepts your offer, then it’s your cue to step in! If not, that’s fine – just repeat Steps #1 and #2 to other people. Eventually you’ll come across someone who’d like to take up your offer. Also, just because someone doesn’t take up your offer at first doesn’t mean he/she won’t do so in the future. Allow the person some time to process your request.
   2. Ask what he/she is specifically seeking advice on, then let the discussion go from there.
      • Check and ensure both of you are at the same page throughout the discussion.
      • Make sure all his/her questions are addressed before you end off.
   3. At the end, leave an open invitation for the person to approach you if he/she has any other questions.
4. Optional challenge to those who are up for it: Repeat Steps 1-3 to 2 other people you know today!

I have no idea who to offer advice to but this will be a pretty fun task for today.

Update to come shortly.

For some odd reason, I have a really hard time being reliable. I think it ties in to my lack of follow through and commitment. I’ve noticed it more this week and it has to change NOW. I’ve mostly let my husband down and our relationship is going to get worse if I don’t change this bad habit. I’ve also noticed that my friends don’t try to make plans as often as they used to. I don’t want to be that person and will not continue to be. I am setting a daily goal to be more reliable. This in turn will make me a better wife, friend and overall person.

Daily Action Plan:

- Stop saying that I am going to do something and then not follow through.

- Only commit to things that I know I can do/go to

- Quit being flaky and wishy washy

- Be accessible (always have my cell phone on me and have it ring loud enough to hear it).

Enough with being negative. Onto enjoying another beautiful day, going to a job that I love, looking forward to a great trip to Long Beach and of course being kind to myself.